How does it end? Well you will have to read this wonderful book to find out. As Helen finds changing the sheets every night harder and harder she also finds Nicola’s denial more taxing and their friendship is tested to the limits. However Nicola is in a state of denial and relying on ‘alternative therapy’ instead of anything else and has no family to rely on. Helen lives next door to her daughter and grand daughter however she is a widow and has had previous experience she is an independent strong woman like Nicola. The characters of Helen and Nicola are incredibly well written though I wanted to know more about when they had met and how their friendship had progressed which you got some clues at during the novel. It also shows its not wrong to find these times hard. There is a scene based on ‘coffee enema’s’ that actually made me laugh out loud. There are highs as much as there are lows, you don’t spend the whole time in tears, though there are lots, you laugh a lot aswell. Having spent 3 months living with someone who was terminally ill with cancer I found it incredibly emotional to read and also incredibly truthful. Its delivered in such a real way it almost took my breath away. This novel also tells of how it is to live with someone with cancer. Helen becomes more than just Nicola’s friend she becomes her nurse, maid and the one who stand up to her no matter how unpopular that might prove.

It is not simply a friend coming to stay for a short holiday Nicola has terminal cancer and could possibly have come to stay with Helen to die. When Helen says that her old friend Nicola to come and stay in her spare room she has a limited idea of what she is taking on.

The spare room by helen garner